Petrol cowboys and furniture shops

So I have made it to Baku in Azerbaijan and have been resting now for a few days while stuffing my face with whatever food I can find. I'm quite enjoying having six meals a day after surviving on cold pasta for the last week.

From Kars I fought a ridiculous headwind towards the Georgian border at Aktas/vale. I skirted along the Armenian border after passing through an interesting multi coloured desert landscape. It got pretty hot for those days and I needed to find shade often to cool down. I circled the beautiful lake called Cildir Golu and found a great camping place with a stunning view over the water and surrounding mountains. I reached Cildir, the last town before the Georgian border and was pleased to be on target to reach Azerbaijan by the 29th June which was when my visa window would end. I climbed the hill towards the border and with around 10km to go, a taxi pulled up and the guy told me there was a problem and the border was closed. He offered to give me a ride for a 100 lira so I guessed he was ripping me off so told him to p*****f (go away!). My little cyclotourist world was starting to crumble around me so I pulled a van over and tried to find out whether the border was actually closed. I got the same answer after lots of hand signals and arm waving! By this point I was thoroughly unhappy so sat and pondered my situation for a while and work out how long it would take me to do the 160km detour.  Eventually deciding that I needed some proper answers , I cruised back down the hill and made a visit to the local police where there was a very warm welcome waiting for me with lots of chai and food. The police confirmed the border was shut while they danced around, laughed and jabbed each other in the ribs. One sat cursing his nokia phone and asked whether mobile phones are better in england. I confirmed they are not!

I left pretty unhappy and knew I would have to take a lift for some of the way as I would not make it to Azerbaijan in the time I had left. There was a large pass of 2400m so I figured I would get a lift over this bit and then I would be back on track and it would be plain sailing all the way to Baku. I cycled the next 30 km before flagging a van down when I got onto the border road. I loaded up my bike in a nice new transit and we covered the next 15km in around twenty seconds before the guy had to turn off. I thought he was going all the way to the border but it was not to be! I started looking for another lift but traffic had become very thin on the ground so started to head up the mountain. The next guy I flagged started asking for money and it became apparent he wanted 100 dollars for just over 30km to the border. I laughed at him and sent him on his way! By know I figured I would be cycling, but luck was on my side and a small van stopped and gave me a lift to within 20 yards of the border. After my new friends insisted I drink some tea with them I continued to the border and crossed into Georgia to be greeted by the worst road I had seen yet.

The Customs guy asked whether my bike had an engine and where it's passport was so I gave him a cough sweet and he let me go on my way through the big iron gates. The road was made up of rocks the size of grapefruit and full of potholes and now both my front racks were snapped so I slowly limped on towards the main Tbilisi road which I guessed would be better. I was amazed at the difference between Turkey and Georgia. In the first town I saw a 10 year old kid out cruising in a big mercedes - he even gave me a hoot and a wave! It was great to get to the Caucauses and be back in valleys cloaked with forests and drained by fast flowing rivers. The people were pretty quiet by Turkish standards and most guys just stared rather than inviting me for tea. The Georgians are renowned for their hospitality and kindness but unfortunately I didn't hang around long enough to experience their wine and food.

I passed along the main road through Borjomi, Kashuri, Kareli to Gori and then to the Capital Tbilisi. It was great cycling as the road wasn't too busy and the scenery was beautiful with lovely mountains dotted with old ruins. Many guys drive old army trucks, with lots of Ladas and mercs with tinted windows thrown in for good measure. I was on a mission to get to Azerbaijan and made a new record distance of 196km. As I sped through Tbilisi, just as it was getting dark, disaster struck! I hit a large hole and my front left pannier released and got sucked into my front wheel helped along by a bungee that was attached. I was cruising at around 35 at the time and thought surely my wheel would collapse. Not so. I escaped lightly - with only one broken spoke and a relatively straight wheel. I made it through the city and found a camping spot in the most mosquito infested place I have ever been. Even dancing to a techno beat would still result in being seriously nailed. Luckily I have become quite proficient at putting my tent up at high speed and managed to escape having all my blood sucked out by the little blighters!

I reached the Azeri border the next day in good time and realised maybe I didn't have to take the lift but sods law would have screwed me if I had decided against it. The first thing I noticed about the Azeris at the border was the abundance of gold teeth in peoples heads. One guy had the full set and looked like some super villian out of a James Bond movie. Also the more mobile phones you carry the more respect you get from your fellow cay drinkers. The border was run by underage soldiers who seemed confused as they didn't have an option for a bicycle on the drop menu on the computer! At least they unlike at the Georgian border they could see I didn't have an engine stashed somewhere in amongst my luggage!

By this point the days were very hot so I started getting really early starts and slept during the hot part of the day before riding again in the evenings. I would manage to get up by 4.30 and knock out 80 km by 10 o'clock before lazing away a few hours in a pool of sweat under a shady tree amongst a thousand ants. Azerbaijan wasn't turning out to be my favourite country of the trip and the constant hooting and shouting from every second guy raised my temperature even further. It really is amazing how excited the Azeris get on sighting a touring cyclist. One guy even danced across the road like a giant fairy to greet me. He did seem genuinely happy to see me but I think many other guys just shout for the hell of it. I did however meet some very kind people who gave me kebabs and soup which was much appreciated.

One day around 400km from baku I felt pretty bad so stopped in some woodland and in the morning had a lie-in as I didn't feel well enough to ride. I slept in the day and was woken by a police radio just behind my tent. I looked up to see a policeman creeping through the bush, no more than 5 yards away. I was wearing only my boxer shorts and really did not want to have to deal with an Azeri policeman but greeted him all the same. He turned and went to fetch his colleauges as back up. I sat there wondering when they would be back, but as it happened, luck was on my side and the strange foreigner was left in peace to get the rest he needed.

Azerbaijan has a disproportionate number of furniture shops compared to the population in the country side. This is a rather pointless observation but its a strange thing. They are everywhere, none of them are open and no one seems to want them to open. There are even more petrol cowboys selling petrol and second hand oil in fanta bottles. Who knows why, when there is a petrol station around every corner selling petrol at very low prices. Maybe someone can inform me why people buy this watered down petrol as I can't believe it can be that much cheaper?

I was prepared for the headwind as I neared Baku after reading about Hamada's experience last year, but not prepared enough. I continued to get up early but on the last day the weather gods were against me and gave me a lovely headwind along with some rain. As I crawled along at 8km/h counting the kms down, I got a lovely coating of mud from passing trucks. The landscape for the last two days became really desolate. There is hardly any vegetation, with pools of dry salt lying by the road and oil trains rumbling by in the distance. Really the Madmax dudes would be happy out there. After 40 km I met some great Turkish construction workers who plied me with chai, bread, cheese and sausages, which really cheered me up for the last leg to Baku. The wind had really taken it out of me and it slowly changed to a side wind that made staying on the road extremely difficult. As trucks passed I would be sucked a metre to the side and then get blown two metres back to the far edge. It really was hard cycling needing full concentation all the time.

I eventually reached Baku and found the 1000 Camels Hostel where I sat and did nothing for a while. Just thought about the 8664 km I had cycled since leaving England and am now over half way to India. I met Carlo a Dutch guy who has ridden his motorbike here and plans to continue to Russia and on to Mongolia. He will take the ferry to Aktau along with an English couple, Neil and Harriet, so I'm not alone and feel the four of us have a much better chance of securing the elusive ferry tickets. I have managed to get my Kazakh and Chinese visas so am all set to go on to India now.

Scott